Season to Share Students Maria Elsa, left, Patricia Araugo with her 6 month old son Santiago Paredes, and Irene Marquez, all of Mexico learn how to clip coupons for shopping. This class is part of the level 3 family literacy class which meets every day for 2 hours and 15 mins. In today’s class the students are learning how to shop efficiently when they go to the market for budgeting which means clipping coupons and making lists of what they need. The Learning Source, among many things, works with immigrant kids and their families to learn English and basic work skills. As well they offer parenting classes and literacy classes. The center is located at 455 S. Pierce Street in Lakewood. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

LAKEWOOD — Andrew Chacon tried a lot of programs to earn his GED, but he was never able to get the one-on-one attention he needed.

Chacon, who prices items at a local ARC thrift store, found the Learning Source. Now he’s set to get his degree and plans to take some college courses.

He doesn’t know what he will pursue, but Chacon, 34, said the path to improving his career would not have opened without the Learning Source.

“This was the one I thought was most helpful,” Chacon said recently after taking a break from preparing for the test. “They seem to care more.”

The Learning Source, which provides opportunities for adult learners and families to attain their educational goals through adult and family literacy, GED preparation and English-language instruction, is one of many organizations that have received funding from Denver Post Charities’ Season to Share.

Executive director Susan Lythgoe said the organization is based in Lakewood but is at 18 other facilities in the metro area, including libraries and schools.

The idea is to empower parents to help their children to read and learn.

At the Lakewood building, above every classroom reads a sign: “You are your child’s first and most important teacher.” At the Learning Source, the teachers and volunteers take that motto to heart.

“We’re helping parents understand how to support their kids in the school system,” Lythgoe said. “A lot of families don’t have literacy. We help them understand that reading to your kids is really important.”

Participants pay $60 a semester or $80 if their non-school-age child is enrolled as well. The Learning Source also is funded through private donations and grants. Sixty percent to 65 percent of the participants are Spanish-speakers.

On a recent day, Veronica Jimenez and a few others were learning the lines to a Christmas carol in a beginning English-language-acquisition class. Instructors went over every line, what each sentence meant, then at the end they all sang the song.

Jimenez, who has a 2-year-old son, has been involved with the Learning Source for about two years. Although her English still is far from fluent, she said it is important for her and her son to learn the language so he can excel in school and she can assimilate.

In a more advanced class, teacher Mary Hilken was teaching her handful of adult students the tenses of a sentence.

Parents who have children in public schools are required to spend at least two hours a week at their schools to work with literacy with their children.

Another component to the Learning Source is workforce development. The current program is focused on energy efficiency.

The center is partnering with Red Rocks Community College and the city of Lakewood. Participant interns are sent out to area businesses to encourage them to go green and learn business and sales skills along the way.

“There’s a huge amount of wasted energy in small commercial buildings and businesses,” Lythgoe said.

But learning literacy and teaching that to children is the backbone of the Learning Source.

Brenda Juarez said it’s important for her to learn English because in the Denver area, Spanish is spoken everywhere. She doesn’t want to fall back on her native language.

“If I go to the Walmart, someone speaks to me in Spanish,” she said. “I want to learn more English. I know some but not enough.”

Carlos Illescas had been with The Denver Post since 1997 before leaving in June 2016. He had worked as a reporter covering the suburbs and was a weekend editor. He previously worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Aspen Daily News and graduated from Colorado State University in 1991.

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If there’s one superhero character whose rise might be most tied to the events of World War II, it is Captain America, who emerged from the minds of legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and sprung forth from an iconic 1941 debut cover on which Cap smacks Hitler right in the kisser.

A customer dining at Washington’s Oceanaire restaurant noticed an unusual line at the bottom of his receipt: “Due to the rising costs of doing business in this location, including costs associated with higher minimum wage rates, a 3% surcharge has been added to your total bill.”